Changing a G4's powersupply?

M

Morgan19

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I've replaced plenty of PC power supplies, but this is the first time I've had to do it to a G4. Do they need a special kind of PSU, or will any old ATX unit work? I'm looking to order the parts from Newegg, so I need to know if a non-Mac-specific PSU would work.

m19
 
Well you could just plug in an ATX PS, but it will fry your mobo. One of he wires has to be clipped from the ATX PS and it's supposed to work just fine. I've never done it myself, just read about it on the net. I'd do a google search for it, or check out xlr8yourmac.com, they probably have something on this.
 
In short, no, they are not compatible, but they can be made to be as compatible as possible.

I would recommend eBay. I just replaced the power supply in an older B&W G3, and it was a snap (even the routing of wires wasn't bad). I looked at online retailers, and they wanted an upward of $100 for the power supply. Found a used G3 power supply on eBay for $20, although there were cheaper ones as well. Works perfectly. You could probably get a genuine power supply for that computer and save some money over purchasing a new one via eBay.

Some G4s, like the MDD series, use very non-standard shaped power supplies, so in some cases, you are almost forced to use an original power supply.

Here's an article on a G4 motherboard to ATX conversion, along with diagrams of power supply pins:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/ATX_G4_AGP_conversion/G4_AGP_to_ATX_case.htm

Read the notes he has on the differences in G4 machines and their power supplies, because they vary widely from model to model.
 
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